Thursday, June 20, 2013

An Outdoor Dinner Party on our Porch | Blue Hydrangeas

Recently, we hosted a dinner for a dear friend of ours that was in town. As I mentioned in my "A Porch Kind of Weekend" post, I love eating out on our porch - but previously had only had casual meals on our loveseats. After writing my monthly article for MyWell-Being.com all about creative Outdoor Entertaining, I was itching to set a complete table outside... so, I pulled our dinning room furniture out onto the porch for a magical dinner alfresco.

Read more of my Outdoor Entertaining tips and inspiration in my recent post on MyWell-Being.com.

I love wheat beers. During the summer I'll take a cold wheat beer with a slice of orange over a glass of wine any day. For this party, I used Boulevard Wheat Beer, fresh squeezed orange juice, vodka and blueberries for a new twist on a Summer Brew (usually vodka lemonade + beer).

For dinner, we grilled steak and vegetable kebabs marinated in a brown sugar, sesame and garlic marinade. I'm not sure how I just figured this out - but... did you know you can grill potatoes? They take no time at all and have a great smokey flavor.

Blue hydrangea are my summer favorites and happen to be blooming in masses
everywhere this year because of all of the rain. I miss my big
hydrangea bushes in our old house and have settled on planting them in
our urns on the front steps this year.

A big bunch of hydrangeas is my favorite "non-arrangement" floral arrangement. Unlike other flowers that look great mixed with others, hydrangea are meant to be on their own bountiful in bunches - they set a sophisticated yet casual tone. I have these in a Match Pewter vase, a wedding present that we've gotten soooo much use out of.

Here is the view of the table from the dining room, just outside the french doors.

The scene - just as the sun was setting and just before our guests arrived. I love these Celebration candles. I used small, thick-glassed votive holders with sea salt to hold the candles.

Aren't they magical and very chic? Stay tuned for the recipes to come!

ps. i've been able to plant my potted hydrangeas the last few years at the end of summer and they've done great. I have about 8 bushes now that were all formerly potted in urns or window boxes and only 1 didn't bloom this year. the wet spring helped!! :)

This looks so beautiful, i think Im going to pull my dining table outside as well for a lovely dinner! Grilled potatoes are a little slice of heaven. Try making mashed potatoes with them. The smokiness adds such a wonderful flavor to them!